Video Game Companies Make Key AI Concession In Latest Offer To End Actors’ Strike
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In the latest offer to end a strike by actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, a consortium of video game companies has made key concessions to strikers. Specifically, the consortium has removed some provisions from the proposed agreement that would have given game companies more ability to create and profit off of “digital replicas”–AI-generated likenesses–of unionized actors.
As originally reported in Variety, this proposal is referred to as the “Last, Best, and Final” offer on AI issues, following a “Last and Best” offer sent in late April that quickly sparked a SAG-AFTRA counteroffer. The latest proposal delivered to SAG-AFTRA focuses on the generative AI sticking points that have been central to the union’s demands since the beginning of the strike.
Among the changes included in this offer, it eliminates a one-time payment for unlimited digital replica buyout clause, which would have given companies the ability to pay a one-time fee to an actor to own the rights for unlimited use of digital likenesses for a certain period of time. SAG-AFTRA asserts that this type of provision would give game companies undue leverage over the vast majority of actors and that buyouts would serve essentially as “a purposeful discount for employers,” according to the previous counteroffer. In the new offer, companies will have to pay more in line with actual usage of digital replicas, bringing the pay structure into closer alignment with how actors are normally paid.
